Levamisole in chronic hepatitis: A favorable trend is not enough

Jay H. Hoofnagle – 1 May 1987 – A double‐blind, randomized, controlled trial has been undertaken to evaluate treatment of chronic hepatitis type B with levamisole. Ten patients received levamisole (150 mg/day, 3 days/wk) and 10 received placebo until seroconversion to antibody to hepatitis B e antigen eventually occurred, or for a maximum of 18 mo.

Effects of ethanol feeding and withdrawal on plasma glutathione elimination in the rat

David J. Callans, Laura S. Wacker, Mack C. Mitchell – 1 May 1987 – Chronic ethanol feeding increases hepatic turnover and sinusoidal efflux of glutathione in rats. The present study was performed to determine whether the observed increase in glutathione efflux was due to increased extrahepatic requirements for glutathione. The concentration and disposition of plasma glutathione were determined in rats fed liquid diets containing 36% of calories as ethanol or pair‐fed an isocaloric mixture with carbohydrate replacing ethanol calories for 5 to 8 weeks.

Is weekly sclerotherapy really better than every three weeks?

John Terblanche, Kenneth E. F. Hobbs – 1 May 1987 – To compare the efficacy and safety of one week versus three weeks interval treatment schedules of endoscopic sclerotherapy, injections were carried out in a prospective manner in 96 patients with variceal bleeding; 47 on a one week and 49 on a three week treatment schedule. Weekly endoscopic sclerotherapy eradicated oesophageal varices significantly (p < 0.01) earlier (mean ± SD 7.1 ± 2.43 weeks) as compared with the three week regimen (mean ± SD 14.86 ± 4.86 weeks).

Endoscopic measurement of pressure in esophageal varices: Variations and complexities

John Polio – 1 May 1987 – An endoscopic pressure sensor has been evaluated in the measurement of oesophageal variceal pressure and its response to drug ingestion. The variceal pressure showed a highly significant correlation with the splenic pulp pressure (r = 0.97) in six patients with liver disease of diverse aetiology and with hepatic venous wedge pressure (r = 0.92) in eight alcoholic cirrhotic men. Intraduodenal infusion of isosorbide dinitrate in the cirrhotics produced no change in wedge pressure or endoscopic variceal pressure despite profound falls in arterial systolic pressure.

Surrogate tests and the risk of posttransfusion hepatitis; their time has come

Richard D. Aach – 1 May 1987 – A total of 481 recipients of blood transfusions who had received 6,295 units of blood were followed for 6–9 months in order to evaluate the relationship between posttransfusion hepatitis (PTH) and transfusion of blood that is positive for antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti‐HBc). The incidence of non‐A, non‐B PTH (NANB‐PTH) was 11.9% among the 193 recipients who received one or more units of anti‐HBc‐positive blood compared to only 3.2% of the 288 recipients of only anti‐HBc‐negative blood (p < 0.001).

Liver transplantation across abo blood groups

Joseph R. Bove, Harold O. Conn – 1 May 1987 – Six hundred seventy‐one first, second and third orthotopic liver allografts in 520 patients were reviewed to determine the effect of donor‐recipient mismatches or incompatibilities for the ABO blood groups on graft survival. A significant advantage for ABO donor‐recipient identity was found, especially in adults for first grafts. However, a surprisingly large number of ABO incompatible grafts were successful.

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